Sugar Land restaurant suddenly closes; plans to relocate to Midtown

Sugar Land restaurant Preview Modern Seafood has closed.
Photo by Eric Sandler

Chef Jason Liao will try to find an audience for dishes like Ora King salmon with apple emulsion and edamme puree in Midtown.
Photo by Eric Sandler

When sushi chef Jason Liao first announced he would be opening Preview: Modern Seafood Cuisine, a non-sushi, seafood-centric restaurant in a Sugar Land strip center, the obvious question was whether such an ambitious concept could thrive in one of Houston's suburbs.

Although the restaurant has attracted a following since it opened in May (at least, based on strong Yelp reviews), the long term answer appears to be no. Preview announced on Facebook that it had closed as of Monday morning and will be reopening later this year under a new name, Tides: Modern Seafood Cuisine, and in a new location in Midtown.

Liao has yet to respond to CultureMap's request for comment about the decision to close Preview and open Tides.

Whatever the future holds for Tides, the restaurant will enter a Midtown dining scene that's suddenly flush with both seafood and Japanese-inspired concepts. Until last year, a scene that had only been to Reef and sushi restaurant The Fish has been joined by Holley's and Jinya Ramen. Kata Robata's sister concept Izakaya is set to open in April.

Can a relative upstart compete against so many heavy hitters? Is Midtown really growing up and turning into both a restaurant destination and a thriving bar scene? Is 10 months really enough time to open a restaurant before giving up and moving on? Time will tell.